


canary in a gilded cage

by purrlouis



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: American Sign Language, Just a lil bit of sMut, M/M, and quite fluffy, deaf!harry, hearing aids/cochlear implants, hearing dog, it's a bit soppy, louis is hearing but harry is completely deaf, zayn is a wise friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 06:52:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3519554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purrlouis/pseuds/purrlouis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Harry is Deaf, and Louis is not, and they fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	canary in a gilded cage

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by @chubandbuns tweet, which was something along the line of "harry is deaf, and the first thing that he ever hears is louis proposing to him." so of course i had to do this
> 
> Most of this stuff is pretty accurate since I'm Deaf as well, and I used ASL instead of BSL since I don't really know BSL

    Louis first saw him dancing in a club, smiling and laughing with his friends. The boy couldn't have been older than 19, and he was tall and lanky, with flowy curls. He looked like he was dancing to a completely different beat, probably dancing to a song in his head.

Zayn, Louis’ best mate and roommate, pushed Louis forward, “Mate, you've been watching him quite creepily for a good 5 minutes, go talk to him.”

Louis rolled his eyes and flicked his hair, “Excuse me, Zayn, I was staring at him quite normally, thank you very much,” and picked up his drink, walking over to the boy, whom was making a load of hand gesture to a blonde guy dancing next to him, a pint in hand. Louis walked up to the green-eyed boy, and flashed him a smile, “Hey love, how are ya?”

The boy quickly turned to the blondie and moved his hands and finger around quickly, letting out a little grunt from over-excitedly gesturing. The other guy nodded, faced Louis and coughed, “Hey, I’m Niall, and this guy,” he pointed to the curly-haired boy, “is Harry. He wants to apologize for not replying to you, you see, he’s Deaf and can’t exactly speak.”

Louis’ eyes flew wide open, “Oh shit, I’m sorry, that was quite ins-”

Niall laughed and shook his head, “Nah, it’s fine, it’s not like you knew or anything.” Harry furrowed his brows and tugged on Niall’s tanktop, and signed something to Niall, and Niall just stared at Harry with a bemused expression. “Harry wants you to dance with him.” 

Louis smiled so big he felt like his face was going to split, “What, really? Uh, what’s the sign for yes?”

Niall made a fist, and Louis flinched, but Niall just shook it up and down from the wrist, and Louis turned to Harry and copied Niall. Harry let out a little weird sound from his throat as he grinned and grabbed Louis’ hand to pull him towards the speakers. 

    At first, Louis didn’t get the point, but as Harry reached the speakers and placed his hands on them, smiling back at Louis, he finally got it. Harry was trying to feel the vibration of the beat. He copied him, feeling the music vibrate throughout his whole body. Harry grabbed Louis’ hand once again, and started dancing to the vibration of the beat that he had memorized in his head, while Louis danced to the music he could currently hear, and he decided that he was completely gone for this boy. He intended to at least leave with his phone number.

                                                                    ***

    At the end of the night, Louis and Harry walked back to Niall, who just smirked at them. He signed and spoke at the same time, “Did you guys have fun?”

    Harry nodded, and pointed at Louis and made a platform with his hand, then did an upside-down peace sign and swung it over the hand-platform then brought one of his hand to his chin and brought it down to meet the other hand. Niall let out a small chuckle, and Louis just looked at them, bewildered.

“He said that you dance quite well, apparently.” 

    Louis turned to Harry, and wanted to try to communicate with him as well. He pointed at Harry’s pocket, then brought up his hand and made the universal signal for phone, then pointed at himself. Harry just blinked, then patted his pocket and pulled out his phone, giving Louis a questioning look. Louis smiled and nodded, and Harry finally understood, and gave him his phone. Louis entered in his name and number, and topped it off by taking a picture of him and Harry and set it as his contact picture. 

    Louis stayed up all night in his bed, grinning  and thinking about the deaf boy from the club. 

                                                                    ***

He and Harry had been texting on the phone for around three weeks, yet they still hadn't met up again because Louis was secretly taking sign language classes, he wanted to surprise Harry and be able to talk to him without Niall to aide him. It was quite frustrating, especially with all of his other classes, but every night, when he talked to Harry, he decided that it was definitely worth it. He had learned a lot about him during the time that they've talked, like he was born deaf and it wasn’t genetic, he couldn’t wear hearing aids nor cochlear implants since the technology wasn’t strong enough for his ears, he has one sister whom became a sign language interpreter, she was inspired by her brother and wanted to work in schools with deaf children, and Harry was just a baker, and it was honestly so hard to not fall in love with this boy. 

“Honestly Zayn, I think he’s the one.” Louis muttered dreamily as he stirred the sugar into his tea, “He’s so amazing, and I want to surprise him and ask him to go out on a date with me in sign language.”

Zayn leaned back in his seat and gave a deep sigh, “I’ve never seen you act this way for anybody. You’re obviously whipped for him. But do you realize how difficult everything is going to be for him in the long run? He’ll always need someone there for him, there’ll be a lot of frustrating moments, and you’ll need to be 100% dedicated for him.”

Louis looked up from his cuppa, and stared at Zayn, “I don’t care, I’m willing to do anything for him.” Zayn just shrugged, and Louis went back to fiddling with tea, thinking about what Zayn had just said. Was he really ready to handle this? He’d obviously do anything to keep him happy, but what happens if something horrible happens and Louis won’t be there to pick the pieces up? Louis shook his head, Harry was completely fine for 19 years, he’d be all right with Louis for however long they’d stay together, if they did get together. 

He pulled out his phone, and opened his message, and clicked on Harry. He thought a bit before typing, “Hey banana boy, im heading to the bakery, gonna be there in 20 minutes, wanna talk to you about something! :)” and pressed sent. 

Louis pulled on his jean coat and yelled, “Zaynie! ‘M going out, need anything?”

“Get some of Harry’s lemon poppy seed muffins for me!”

                                                                    ***

Louis walked into the bakery, and saw an older woman, probably around 50-60 years old, managing the counter. Louis walked up and cleared his throat, “Excuse me, is Harry Styles in here?”

She looked up and grinned,“Oh, you must be Louis! Yes, he’s right in back, should be by the oven or something.” The woman rubbed her hands on her apron to get rid of the flour dust, and walked into the kitchen. A few moments later, Harry showed up with a bit of flour on his hair, and smiled brightly. A golden retriever followed him, and it was wearing some sort of chunky blue harness with words on it. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it said “Hearing Dogs for Deaf People”. Harry patted his leg and walked over to a table, the dog following, and gestured Louis to sit across him. 

Harry pulled out a notepad, and wrote something down, then pushed it over to Louis with the pen. “I asked Marcie to get us some blueberry danishes, what did you wanna talk about?” Louis wrote, “Sick, thanks! Zayn wanted some lemon poppy seed muffins. And what’s your dog’s name, you never mentioned him to me?” “His name is Gus, and I’ll fill out the order right after you tell me what you wanted to talk about.” Louis laughed, then wrote, “Very subtle... okay, look at me, and please don’t laugh if I mess up.”

Harry read it slowly then looked up at Louis, a questioning look on his face. Louis coughed then cracked his fingers. Slowly, but surely, he began to sign. “Will...you...go..on...a.. date...with me?”

It was quite hard to make out the expression on Harry’s face, but he looked overall shocked. Then he let out a laugh, a sound from Harry that Louis hadn’t ever heard, and nodded so quickly, Louis thought he’d break his neck.  
      
    Louis grabbed the paper,"Great, are you free next Friday?"  
      
    Harry read the paper, then looked for Marcie and waved her over. He signed something to her, and she thought for a minute, then signed something that Louis recognized, "Yes." Harry then signed "Thank you!" over, and over and it was honestly so adorable. 

                                                                        ***

Their first date was a success. Louis had picked up Harry, 7:30pm sharp, and listened to Niall’s ‘parent speech’, about how he wanted Harry back at 11pm and that he knew of several good places to hide Louis’ body if he messed with Harry, but he clapped his back and whispered, “Good luck.”, in Louis’ ear. They pulled up to some fancy restaurant, and was whisked away to their table. Louis and Harry decided to order crab legs to share, and some wine with a long french name.  They laughed about everything and nothing the whole time, and when Louis took Harry home, Harry had shyly pecked Louis on the cheek and signed something to Louis, something that Louis didn’t understand. Louis signed “What?” to him, but Harry shook his head and put a finger over his lips, then disappeared into the house, leaving Louis to gawk at him on the porch.

Louis googled it later, and found out that Harry said “I love you.”Shocked, he relayed this information to Zayn, and Zayn frowned. "Isn't he moving a bit fast? You've only been on one date and he told you that he loves you?"  
      
    "We've been talking for over a month, yet we're so connected. Hell, he could propose to me next week and I'd say 'Alright!'. Well, I'd sign it but that's not really the point. The point is, I think he's my soulmate."

    "I thought that like two years ago, you said fireball whiskey was your soulmate?"  
      
    "Ah, shut up you absolute twat."

 

                                                                        ***

    Louis panted as he thrusted into Harry, and traced Harry’s back with his fingers, spelling out, “U okay?” Harry moaned and nodded as he grinded back into Harry’s cock, and Louis was going absolutely insane at all of the raw, guttural noises he was making.

    It wasn’t really planned at all, Harry had just invited Louis over to stay with him for the night since Louis would be out celebrating his birthday, then Christmas with his family, so they wanted to get some time together, and one thing had led to another, and now Harry was handcuffed to the bedpost, hair sticking to his sweaty forehead, and his face was absolutely flushed as Louis fucked him and signed dirty to him, “God babe, you sound so magical, I wish you could hear yourself.” “You’re so good, can you come untouched?” 

    After they both came and got cleaned up, Harry made grabby hands at Louis, and Louis just rolled his eyes and crawled into bed with Harry. Louis shifted away so Harry could see him, and signed, “You’re such a sap.” 

    Harry giggled, and signed “Hey, I’m not the one that learned sign language for their lover and changed their major to Sign Language to become an interpreter.”

    Louis shrugged, “Alright, alright, that’s fair.” They both lied still in the bed, looking at each other for what seemed like hours. “Hey, Haz? You know those new cochlear implants we saw online?” Harry nodded, and Louis continued, “What do you think about those?”

    Harry sat up in the bed, and stared at the wall with a serious look on his face as he thought. He finally sighed and turned to Louis, “It would be amazing to get them, I’ve always dreamed of being able to kind of hear and stuff, but I can’t think about them because they cost way too much, and I’m slightly afraid to hear noises for the first time. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to hear something

    Louis placed his hand on Harry’s knee, and smiled softly, then retracted his hand to sign, “Yeah, I was just wondering. It’d be cool.” Louis grabbed Harry and pulled him down next to him and pulled one of Harry’s hand up to his throat. Louis coughed to clear his throat then spoke louder than usual, so that Harry could feel the vibration, and clearly pronounced, “I love you.” Harry smiled and bent his middle and ring finger and signed “I love you.”

                                                                        ***

“No babe, I promise that you’ll like it! It’s not going to be like the Great Birthday Crisis of 2015!” Louis giggled while signing to Harry. 

    Harry, however, wasn’t entirely convinced. “You literally ate me out for 2 hours then pulled your jaw and had to go to the E.R., and we ended up having to sell my gift from you to pay off the medical bill.”

    Louis pulled into a parking lot, and laughed, “Alright, so that wasn’t the best idea, and we had to sell your brand new expensive headscarf, but I swear this is 10 times better. I’m gonna blindfold you, ok?”

    Harry quirked an eyebrow, and signed, “Quite kinky, hmm?”, but he obliged. Louis wrapped one of Harry’s headscarf around his eyes, taking great care in making sure his curls didn’t get tangled up, and led him into the building. He put Harry in a chair, then walked towards the receptionist.

    The receptionist opened the window, and Louis smiled and said, “I’m Louis Tomlinson, I’m here with Harry Styles, and we have an appointment with Dr. Payne.” 

    She nodded, and saw Harry, “Ooh, you surprising him?”

“Yeah, it took me nearly 4 years to save up for these, and he’s wanted this forever, and it’s his birthday so I figured it’s the right time.” 

    She gave him a kind smile, “You can go sit with him, the doctor will be right out.” Louis said a quick thank you, then went to sit next to Harry. Right when Harry felt Louis lowering down into his seat, Harry grabbed Louis’ hand and squeezed it tightly.

    They had only waited for 5 minutes when the door opened and a brown haired man with thick eyebrows walked in and waved to them, “How are my favorite people in the world?”

    Louis grabbed Harry’s arm and led him over to her, and chuckled, “Liam, I thought you aren’t supposed to have favorite patients?”

    He rolled his eyes, “It’s not like you’re going to tell anybody.” He then took a glance at Harry, who was just drumming his fingers on his leg, “Does he know?”

    "No, it’s a surprise.” Louis was suddenly stricken with regret, what if this was a huge mistake and Harry got pissed at him? He tried to hide his nervousness as he followed Liam into the exam room. He sat Harry down and took off the blindfold.

    Harry blinked quickly to try to adjust to the light, then looked around his surrounding, “Why am I in Dr. Payne's exam room?”

    Liam signed, “I’m giving you your birthday present from Louis, I’m going to do some hearing tests to confirm that you’re qualified for cochlear implants.” 

    Harry blinked and pinched himself. Louis laughed and asked, “Why did you do that?”

    "Because there’s no way this is real.” Harry walked over to Louis, and pulled him into a hug. They just stood there, hugging, until Liam coughed and Louis broke the hug. Harry just stared at Louis then asked, “How can you afford this?”

    "I started saving some of my money for this after you and I talked about these cochlear implants 4 years ago, and I figured it’d be a good birthday present, now, go ahead and get in that chair.”

    Harry wiped the tears off of his face, he hadn’t even known he was crying, and sat in the chair next to Liam, and he started to explain what she was doing. “Basically, I’m going to put these hearing ads that’s connected to the computer in your ears, and we’re going to use all of your old tests to put in your hearing level, and if all goes well, we should be able to determine what setting would be the best for your cochlear implants, which you should get in about two months. Ready?” Harry nodded. 

Louis wrapped his hand around something in his pocket, he had planned this at least a year ago with Liam, and he couldn’t believe it was finally happening. Liam put the hearing aids in Harry’s ears, and allowed Harry to fiddle with them so that they’d fit comfortably. He then turned on the computer, and meddled with a program. Looking back and forth from Harry’s test results to the screen, he input the necessary stuff, then turned to Harry and signed, “Whenever you’re ready, you can turn those on, and tell me if they work for you.”

It was now or never. Louis scooted closer to Harry, and Harry gave him a huge grin, then signed “Okay.” He turned them on.

Louis coughed, and Harry’s head snapped around to look at Louis. His eyes got huge, and his mouth opened in a gasp. Louis spoke, “Harry-”

Harry cut him off, signing frantically, “Is that my name?” Louis nodded and he honestly felt like his face was going to fall off, it hurt so much from smiling. 

Louis started over, and signed while he spoke, “Harry, I love you so much, and these past few years have been the best years of my life.” He got down on his knee, “And now, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to grow old with you and have 12 children and loads of grandkids. Harry Edward Styles, will you marry me?” He pulled the box out of his pocket, and opened it, revealing a ring.

Harry let out a choked sob, and gestured Louis to come over and hug him, since he still had the hearing aids in his ears. He signed “Yes, yes, yes.” over and over. He stepped back and signed, “I never imagined that the first sounds that I’d hear would be that.”

“I’ve waited so long to be able to do that, you have no idea.” Louis cried as he looked at Harry’s face, which looked like it was made out of pure joy. 

Harry signed, “Now I want to do something special for you.” He took a deep breath, and forced words out of his mouth, “I... loove.. you, Louieee.” His voice sounded so deep and cracked, and the words were a bit drawn out, but Louis didn’t care about that at all, he was just stunned.

Louis signed, and spoke the words, “I love you too, Harry.”

**Author's Note:**

> twitter- @oopshigh  
> ask.fm- ask.fm/purrlouis
> 
> i'd love it if you left a kudos or a comment and shared this on twitter :^)


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